Wild Card
by akwong76
Summary: At the end of Heaven's Feel, Shirou decides that he would sacrifice anything in order to save Sakura and Ilya, and he makes a wish to the Grail. Now, at Shin Tokyo, a different Shirou arrives, and he's bringing along his strange and dangerous family. Based on gabriel blessing's In Flight. Distorted-in-a-Different-Way!Shirou, Scary!Sakura, Bringer-of-Chaos!Ilya.


_ "__— No, you won't die, Shirou. I'm the one that's going to shut the gate."_

_ "—__ ?"_

_ I ask the girl a question. I'm not sure exactly what I asked, but I think I asked her what she's doing._

_ "Do you want to live?"_

_ "__—."_

_ I answer her. I tell her I want to live. _

_Of course I want to live. If I die, I cannot protect. If I die, I cannot save. And I must save those two girls I love so very much, my family. That is the meaning of my existence_

_ "I'm glad to hear that. I wanted you to live instead of me."_

_ No. That's not what I want. She has to live. No matter what, __—ya__ must live._

_ "__—__I'll show you a miracle. It's an application of the magic I showed you earlier, but this one's amazing. This is the sorcery everyone wanted to see after all."_

_ What was her name? I have to tell her. I have to tell her to live._

_ "Ilya!"_

_ "__—__ But the container's a bit cheap. I can't completely reproduce it using only my own body, but it's all right."_

_ She enters the light. But she can't die. That idiot just doesn't get it. As long as she lives, I will save her. As long as this soul of mine lives, I will save Ilya and Sakura._

_ "Ilya! No!"_

_ "__—__Goodbye. We weren't related by blood, but I was happy being siblings with you."_

_ If that's how you feel, then don't go. I can't sacrifice you. I said we'd live together to make up for all the time you've lived alone. I promised that the three of us would be a family. I promised I would always protect you two. It was a promise to my future, and a promise to my existence._

_—__ So, if someone has to be sacrificed, then__—_

_ I'd rather sacrifice the world._

_ "My only wish is fo__r__ the two I love to be h__app__y."_

_ Before Ilya had any time to register my words, the Grail opened. All the pain, death, and destruction of the world poured into a wish for happiness. Then the world shook, burned, and went silent. And then…_

_ … We are, at last, filled with joy._

— Heaven's Feel, True End Alter

_*Scene Break*_

Karasuba was quite amused at this turn of events. When MBI called her down to accompany Takami to the airport to interrogate some suspicious people caught by the DNA breathalyzer, what she expected was standard fare, shoddily disguised businessmen from rival companies, trying to weasel out a few secrets from the company. Or people trying their best to look like normal, law abiding Japanese citizens instead of insane foreign terrorists. What she didn't expect was to find a pair of freaky albinos in purple and pink dresses smiling at her as she rubbed the flat of her sword along the neck of the annoyed, white-haired, tanned man.

But what amused her weren't the looks of the odd group, although it was a bit funny seeing the sea of white hair around her, a bit disproportionate compared to the standard population. It was the odd way the "interrogation" was going that amused her.

Takami had started with the standard, "Who the fuck are you and what the hell do you think you're planning?" spiel, holding her tablet menacingly.

The man ran his hand through his hair, muttering, "Jesus Christ. What did I do to deserve this?" as the taller, red-eyed woman with a long black dress responded politely, "My name is Emiya Sakura, and this is my husband, Emiya Shirou, and my sister-in-law, Emiya Ilyasviel. We are returning to Japan after visiting my sister-in-law's family in Germany and a senpai in Britain to pick up a book."

She flashed a book too quickly for normal human eyes to see, but Karasuba, using her superhuman senses, managed to read the cover: "How to Troll as One of the Most Powerful Beings in the Universe: Written by Sorcerers, for Sorcerers! By Zelretch, co-written by Aoko Aozaki."

Not quite sure what to make of that title, Karasuba turned her attention back to the interrogation.

"That's a load of bull. You can't honestly expect me to believe that you coincidentally came to Shin Tokyo and scored a hit in our DNA database. Karasuba, get the truth out of them."

Karasuba grinned bloodthirstily before dragging her katana along the man's arm, ripping his rather nice black button-up shirt, and finally resting her katana on the man's finger. Her arms tensed to thrust through one of the appendages before the man's other hand slapped away the katana, while a stifling sense of foreboding began rising from his two still-smiling female companions, freezing Karasuba.

"I thought… only Miya could…" A small murmur escaped Karasuba's lips before Shirou smoothly interrupted.

"My family is rather protective of me, so it would be best if you didn't do that. Now, I believe my wife has thus far been perfectly cooperative, so why don't we continue our discussion a bit more like civilized people."

Takami stared at the man's casual disregard to violence and shivered at the terrible feeling (_like maggots filling every pore of her body while pain so hot so hot filled her nerves_) she got from the two women. She rejoined, politely, but with a hint of fear layered under a veneer of anger, if the twitch in her eye was any indication: "Well. I guess I'd like to know what your plans are here at Shin Tokyo, if you don't mind me asking. I'll have an agent pull up your database results in the meantime."

"I would be happy to answer." The man had a mocking smile dancing on his lips. "We're here to see our… legacy? No, that's not quite what I wanted to say. We have a bit of an attachment to Shin Tokyo. We associate it with a very important event in our lives."

Takami frowned. Construction of Shin Tokyo started only four years ago, after the destruction of Old Tokyo, and, even though it looks worthy of being the technological center of Japan now (through the prodigious use of Sekirei powers, courtesy of MBI's construction branch), it was still too new for anyone to have formed any lasting attachment to the place. Heck, Takami had been one of the earliest ones to move here, following her career with MBI, and even she still felt like a stranger in a foreign land every time she woke up.

The point is, the three of them really shouldn't have any reason to be attached to this city. If they had truly gone gallivanting around the world, they probably haven't ever even set foot in this city. The timeframes just didn't match up. And there wasn't any event that could be associated with this place thus far, from a non-resident's point of view…

Except _that_. The Hellfall (Takami had always thought that nutty fundamentalist politicians from America shouldn't have been given the right to name the event). The mysterious event that claimed millions of lives across the world, and the reason Shin Tokyo was built. In that case, these strange travelers were probably from _that city_.

Noticing Takami's eyes widening in realization, Shirou shot off a quick wry smile and a nod before answering, "Yes. We're from Fuyuki City."

Takami flinched. If anyone believed the superstition that Fuyuki City was cursed, it was her. First, she had lost her eldest child in massive fire that engulfed part of the city. Then, as if that wasn't enough, ten years later, she heard about the strange murders and gas attacks at the city. Finally, shortly after that, the Hellfall occurred, cementing her belief that Fuyuki City was built directly on top of Satan's bedroom.

And that would explain all the events there pretty well, compared to the other beliefs out there. The scientists explained the Hellfall as "a freakish coincidence of plate tectonics. A once-in-a-millennium event where hidden sub-mantle fault lines around the world happened to line up and cause all elevated strips of land over the fault lines to sink into the mantle." But anyone with even an ounce of knowledge about geology would know that the entire explanation was crock, meant to placate the masses.

What was known was that huge strips of land sunk down to the ocean floor, seemingly forming a ring around Earth. The ring went from Fuyuki City to LA, then around and back to Fuyuki city, splitting the Americas, Africa, parts of Asia, and Japan each in half with large strips of ocean. The city of Old Tokyo was only one of the few casualties of the vent. There were no survivors from the cities and villages that sunk to the ocean, but, strangely enough, Fuyuki City remained standing, a solitary land bridge connecting the two almost separated halves of Japan, and the only city left standing on the path of the Hellfall.

When the military entered Fuyuki, they found a bloodbath. Most survivors at Fuyuki City became murderer-cannibal-rapists, attributed to the trauma of whatever they had seen. A few retained their sanity, although they would never reveal what had happened in the city. A mystery through and through.

Takami took a deep, long look at each of the girls, then the male that claimed to be from Fuyuki City. They looked rather sane, so she decided that they must be the few that didn't come out as murderers, rapists, or cannibals. It was more comfortable thinking this than it was thinking that the group was indeed comprised of murder-cannibal-rapists, and were just good enough to hide it.

A notification from her tablet pulled her back to her thoughts. Her agent had finished retrieving information about the group, including the DNA test results.

"Well. Your story seems at least plausible, if a bit unbelievable. Let me cross-check some facts from your report, and then you can be on your way out."

Takami scanned through the document, and started asking:

"What is your date of birth? It's not in the report."

"Well, I actually don't know. After I lost my family in the Fuyuki City fire, I had lost my memories and couldn't remember when my actual birth date was."

Takami gave Shirou a strange look, before continuing:

"So who are your parents? Biological and adopted?

"I don't remember my biological parents, but my adopted father was Emiya Kiritsugu. Unfortunately, Kiritsugu also died several years ago."

The questions continued until, at the end of the document, Takami found the results of the DNA test.

What. The. Fuck.

Takami looked at Shirou, then back at the results. The facts seemed to match. The age seemed to match. Even the hair color seemed to match.

"What. The. Fuck."

Intrigued, Karasuba looked over Takami's shoulder and read the results. She immediately burst out laughing, tears streaming out of her eyes as she clutched her stomach.

"What is it?"

Wordlessly, Takami passed over her tablet and pointed to the DNA results. Shirou read it, did a double-take, then said:

"What. The. Fuck."

Takami rubbed her forehead, then began haltingly narrating.

"My eldest son, Shino, was being taken care of by my father in Fuyuki City when the fire hit. I searched through all the hospitals in Japan to find him, but I couldn't. I thought he had died. I didn't realize that the hospital got just one syllable of his name wrong."

"And now you're saying that I'm him? You can't seriously believe that."

"Well, all the facts seem to point to that. I think… I think it's true. There can't have been that many white-haired boys that have been through the Fuyuki City fire.

Her supposed daughter-in-law and pseudo-stepdaughter looked on with a strange warmth in their eyes during the exchange, and leaned towards Shirou to whisper something into his ears. The two made eye contact with her, and she felt a chill crawl up her spine as they turned back to Shirou and whispered a few more words into his ears.

"I… believe you. I'm still in shock from this though. I mean… I had never even considered the possibility that my parents were still alive. It's just… wow."

The room sat in silence for a few moments, interspersed with a few stifled giggles on Karasuba's end.

"So, I missed my eldest son's first day of school. His graduation. His wedding. I can't believe how much of your life I missed out on."

"Ah, right. Since you're my mother-in-law now, I guess more formal introductions are in order. My name is Emiya Sakura, originally Matou Sakura. I am Shirou's main lover, and wife-in-Japan. I sincerely hope you will bless our relationship and treat us kindly."

"Main lover…? Wife-in-Japan…?"

"And I'm Emiya Ilyasviel, originally Ilyasviel von Einzbern. I am Shirou's older sister, and his wife-in-Germany. Nice to meet'cha, mother-in-law."

What. Takami's brain started shutting down from the overload, unable to take in the information that her son had gotten into a polyamorous, incestuous relationship with two other women while she was away. Her eyes shuttered close as she placed her hand over her forehead. Meanwhile, Karasuba was snickering at Takami's reaction.

"And I'm Shirou's mistress and side-lover."

Takami shrieked and fainted as the tall, purple-haired woman in a tight black shirt and jeans suddenly appeared behind the two, surprising the mother through both her sudden appearance and her words. Karasuba couldn't take it anymore, and started howling in laughter, doubled over onto the ground and rolling about. The remaining members of the room looked at each other and shrugged, before trying various methods of waking their newfound mother up.

_*Scene Break*_

Archer was now living the life. He had just gotten off his first-class flight to Shin Tokyo, and he had the penthouse suite of the classiest hotel in the city reserved for him, courtesy of Alaya. During the flight, he had ordered a bottle of the finest cognac, received a damn good massage from the pretty masseuse, and stole some pretty good seafood recipes from the on board chef.

And even while he was getting all of that, he knew his work was saving lives.

Damn. He had never felt as good about his job as a Counter Guardian as he did now.

Ever since the Fifth Holy Grail War, the new Emiya family had been classified as an "S-Class Volatile Threat" by Alaya, joining the ranks of the True Ancestor, the two other sorcerers, and a few of the Dead Apostle Ancestors in this classification. For them, Alaya has a policy reminiscent of certain European nations of the past century, and that is "Observe and appease. And pray that they don't decide to destroy everything." Alaya has a tacit understanding that, although it can easily kill these threats, these threats are strong enough that they can split the world in two even as they're dying.

As the Counter Guardian assigned to the Emiya family, Archer had a simple job: to follow around the family, make sure they stay happy, and prevent anyone from pissing the family off too much. And Alaya was kind enough to give Archer a huge bankroll (courtesy of the almighty Counter Force) to do this task.

So far, this meant following them around in Europe, throwing money at them, and meeting up to cook and drink with the family from time to time.

Archer and Shirou got along surprisingly well after the Fifth Holy Grail War. Shirou had felt thankful for the arm Archer donated, and Archer was thankful for finally getting his well-deserved break from his genocidal duties. Since the two didn't have any ill feeling getting in the way, their similar interests in cooking and swords brought them closer together. Archer didn't have any grudge against Shirou's new anti-pragmatic, pro-Sakura-and-Ilya ideals, and in fact found himself rather jealous of this new Shirou. Eventually, Archer found himself in the position of a close family friend, such that he even turned up as the best man at Shirou's second wedding in Germany with Ilya.

Of course, his new life wasn't all roses and sunshine. Archer often found himself trying to kill off any assassins that might piss off the Emiya family too much, not that they needed him to do so anyways. And when the Emiya family decided to kill all the Einzbern, Archer had to track down and kill each of the Einzbern that were in hiding before Ilya could get impatient enough to turn all of Germany into a volcanic wasteland.

And now he found himself at Shin Tokyo Airport, just one day behind the Emiya family.

_*Scene Break*_

"Who the hell are you and what the hell are you planning?"

Karasuba snorted. This situation was eerily similar to yesterday's. The DNA hit, mysterious white-haired men, and Takami's interrogation. Hopefully, it would end at a similarly amusing note as yesterday's.

"My name is Archer, and I'm here to meet up with some friends here at Shin Tokyo." The tanned man was rather polite and level-headed.

"Any relation with Emiya Shirou?"

"Why, yes. He's the friend I'm planning to meet here."

"Then why do you have the exact same DNA sequence as him?"

Archer's eyes widened in surprise. He had to think fast.

"Ah. I'm actually Shirou's identical twin."

"Bullshit. I should know. I gave birth to Shirou."

Karasuba had a toothy grin plastered to her face. This was turning out to be very, very amusing.

_*Scene Break*_

Crap. This was bad.

Archer wasn't particularly bad at lying, but it seemed he was being caught at every turn for his lies. To cover for that, he had to make more and more intricate lies.

And what the hell? Shirou had a mom?

"So let me get this straight. You're Emiya Kiritsugu, alias Archer. You're actually my father, and you performed genetic experimentation on yourself and me. You turned my firstborn child into a cloning experiment, then took away your clone to raise him yourself. You began feeling guilty about turning your grandson/son into an experiment, so you faked your death, and came back as a family friend. Shirou has no idea that you're actually his father/grandfather. Is that all?"

"Yes. And for what it's worth, I'm truly sorry."

At this point, Takami decided she needed to put her head down and cry at the sheer ridiculousness of the past two days. Karasuba decided she needed to cry too, with tears of laughter streaming down her face.

_A/N: This is my first fanfiction, so criticism is welcome._

_I wrote with Heaven's Feel True End in mind. I had always thought that Ilya deserved some sort of good ending at the end of Heaven's Feel, and I both liked and disliked the final decisions that Shirou made in Heaven's Feel. The final route was all about Shirou abandoning his ideals of saving the many for the sake of the few that he loves. Yet in the True End, Shirou allows one of the few that he loves to sacrifice herself for the sake of the rest of the world. I've always thought that that weakens Shirou's character in that route._

_One of the problems I'm going to run into soon is that I have no idea how to write Shirou/Sakura and Shirou/Ilya romance. Shirou/Rin and Shirou/Saber have easier romantic scenes to write (Their character interactions are well-known and well-documented). Shirou/Ilya is marginally harder to write, but it should be pretty fun to write too. Shirou/Sakura though… I have no idea how they would normally interact romantically while keeping things interesting. FS/N only shows sexual and cooking interactions, and when the two finally hook up, they're both going brain-dead._

_*Spoiler Alert*_

_I'm planning on making Archer the main character on the Sekirei side of things. The Emiya family will only really be close to one Sekirei (guess who?), while Archer does what Shirou does in In Flight._

_Some background that wasn't revealed in the chapter / wasn't clear:_

_Minato exists. He'll take some part in the story. He'll also wing some Sekirei._

_Rin and Saber are dead. (But…)_

_Almost all the characters from Fuyuki City are dead. Only Taiga survived, but she's in a coma._

_The story starts four years after the Fifth Holy Grail War._

_I hope you enjoy._


End file.
